Grade 5
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Parent Guide
A Parent’s Guide To
GRADE 5 CURRICULUM
Reading + Writing + Mathematics + Science + Social Studies
Grade 5
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Parent Guide Introduction
IntroductionResearch shows that children are more likely to succeed in learning when families actively support them. When you and other family members read with your children, help them with homework, talk with their teachers, and participate in school or other learning activities, you give your children a tremendous advantage. Other than helping your children grow up healthy and happy, the most important thing that you can do for them is help them develop their reading skills. It is no exaggeration to say that how well children learn to read directly affects not only how successful they are in school but how well they will do throughout their lives. When children learn to read, they have the key that opens the door to all of the knowledge of the world.
As a parent, you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Our goal in this guide is to give you greater visibility into the Forward instructional program. We believe that the gains your child experiences in this program will establish the building blocks for his or her love of learning in the months and years to come.
Grade 5 Integrated CurriculumThe Elementary Integrated Curriculum blends reading, writing, and mathematics instruction with lessons in science and social studies in a way that spurs creativity and critical thinking skills. Students will receive robust instruction across all subjects in the early grades. The curriculum is built around developing students’ critical and creative thinking skills as well as essential academic success skills, which lead to college and career readiness.
In the Grade 5 Integrated Curriculum, critical and creative thinking skills as well as academic success skills are identified and paced into four parts that are each nine weeks in duration. These skills are explicitly taught using concepts and topics identified by part in each content area and provide a focus for integration across content areas. This document provides an outline of these skills and the curriculum concepts and topics that are the focus of instruction for Grade 5 students.
Grade 5
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Parent Guide
K–5 Instructional Program Goals
ReadingStudents will develop the knowledge and skills essential to becoming literate, thoughtful communicators, who are capable of controlling language effectively, in the following ways:
Strategically reading literary and informational instructional-leveled texts with fluency, purpose, and comprehension
Using skills and strategies widely as tools for learning and reflection
Understanding and appreciating language and literature as catalysts for deep thought and emotion
WritingStudents will develop the knowledge and skills essential to becoming literate, thoughtful communicators, who are capable of controlling language effectively, in the following ways:
Composing narrative, informative/explanatory, and opinion texts as tools for learning and reflection
Conducting research and writing projects for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Evaluating relevant information from print and digital sources and using a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing
MathematicsStudents will develop the knowledge and skills essential to achieving mathematical proficiency in the following ways:
Developing both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency
Thinking and reasoning mathematically
Using mathematics to solve problems in authentic contexts
ScienceStudents will develop the knowledge and skills essential to becoming literate in science, and technology in the following ways:
Thinking critically, solving problems, and communicating effectively
Tackling increasingly challenging issues
Seeking understanding to support solutions
Social StudiesStudents will develop the knowledge and skills essential to developing a balanced and integrated understanding of systems of culture, economics, geography, and politics and the history of their development in the following ways:
Applying concepts and knowledge of the past to problem solving real-world issues of the present
Critically examining human interactions and evaluating their role as an effective citizen
Communicating social studies concepts clearly in multiple formats and putting theory into practice as a citizen
Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies
Comprehension of literary text (adventure stories; tall tales; folktales): themes in literature; comparison of characters, settings, or events; point of view; foreshadowing; contribution of visual and multimedia elements; text structure; comparison of stories
Comprehension of informational/explanatory text: use of quotes; relationships among individuals, events, ideas or concepts; accurately interpret text to support opinions; main idea and key details; comparison of texts; author’s point of view; different viewpoints on the same topic
Vocabulary: homographs; signal words; figurative language; context clues; academic and content-specific vocabulary
Writing workshops: narrative (adventure story); informative; opinion
Ideas & development: recognize characteristics of narrative genre; establish setting, characters, and plot; introduce conflict; dialogue; pacing of events; descriptive details; point of view; group related facts; comparison text structure; conclusions; organization; develop thesis; drafting; revision; editing; publish
Word choice: verb tense; dialect; transitional words; domain-specific words; interjections; formal and informal English
Conventions: punctuation; reference tools; sentence fluency; multimedia components; audio and visual displays
Multiplication fluency (multi-digit whole numbers): standard algorithm
Volume (right rectangular prisms)
Numerical expressions with parentheses, brackets, braces
Place-value relationships among places in the base-ten system
Decimals (thousandths)
Comparison of decimals (to thousandths)
Rounding decimals
Addition and subtraction of decimals (tenths or hundredths as addends)
Division (2- or 3-digit 4 2-digit multiple of 10 without zeros in quotient)
Scientific inquiry process
Safety practices for science investigations
Understand the design process
Describe the motion of an object using direction and distance traveled as well as elapsed time and speed
Describe how forces affect an object’s motion
Newton’s First Law of Motion
Investigate forms of energy
Explain how energy changes during the motion of an object
Arrival and migration of early peoples in the Americas
Settlement of cultures
Maya and Aztec cultures
Native American cultures in North America
Understand how people change the environment in which they live
Viking explorers in North America
Technologies that advanced exploration
African slave trade
Christopher Columbus’s journey to the Americas
Early Spanish exploration in North America
Relationships between European explorers and Native Americans
New Spain colony
The Columbian Exchange
CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL
FLExIbILITy CoLLAboRATIoN
Demonstrate adaptability by changing ideas, questions, resources, or strategies when presented with evidence.
Solicit and respect multiple and diverse perspectives to broaden and deepen understanding.
Identify and analyze options for sharing responsibility to reach a group goal.
Support group decisions with criteria.
Parent Guide
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Grade 5 | Part 1
4
Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies
Comprehension of literary text (traditional stories/myths; mysteries): theme; point of view; text structure; review key ideas and draw conclusions; comparison of characters, settings, or events; contribution of visual and multimedia elements; tone; sequence of events; compare stories in the same genre; compare literature to multimedia versions of the same story
Comprehension of informational/explanatory text: comparison of texts; use of quotes when inferring; main ideas and supporting details; summarizing information; relationships among individuals, events, ideas; evidence and reasons to support authors’ points; reasons and evidence to support points in a text
Vocabulary: affixes and roots; reference sources; idioms; figurative language; synonyms; simile and metaphor; context clues
Writing workshops: narrative (traditional stories/myths; mystery story); informative/explanatory text; opinion
Ideas & development: organization; narrow topic; develop plot; sequence of events; develop research questions; develop thesis; analyze facts to form an opinion; support opinion with facts; conclusions; prewriting; drafting; revision; editing; peer feedback
Word choice: formal and informal English; conjunctions; concrete words and phrases; verb tense; transitional words
Conventions: citing sources; punctuation; voice; formal and informal language registers; parts of speech; capitalization; spelling; digital tools; publishing
Division (up to 4-digit 4 2-digit multiple of ten)
Relationships among dividends, divisors, and quotients
Addition and subtraction of fractions (unlike denominators)
Multiplication of a whole number and a fraction (partitive, whole-number products)
Multiplication as resizing
Multiplication of a fraction by a fraction (numerator of one factor is a multiple of the denominator of the other factor)
Multiplication fluency: standard algorithm (multi-digit whole numbers)
Scientific inquiry process
Electricity and electric circuits
Materials that are conductors and insulators
Properties of magnetism
Understand and apply the engineering design process
Design an electromagnet
Wave energy as a force
Spanish colonies and missions in North America
English colonies in North America
Pilgrims’ immigration to North America
The Mayflower Compact
Impact of settlers on Native Americans
Daily life on the Plymouth Plantation
French settlements and colonies in North America
Slave trade and the Middle Passage
The French and Indian War
CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL
SyNTHESIS METACoGNITIoN
Integrate ideas, information, and theories to invent or devise a solution.
Formulate generalizations by examining parts and putting them together.
Self-monitor strategies to assess progress and apply new thinking.
Seek clarification and adapt strategies to attain learning task/outcome.
Parent Guide
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Grade 5 | Part 2
5
Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies
Comprehension of literary text (poetry; fantasy; folktales; graphic novel): point of view; theme; structure; contribution of visual and multimedia elements; comparison of characters, settings, or events
Comprehension of informational/explanatory text: main ideas and details; multiple accounts of the same event; compare texts; integrate information from multiple texts on the same topic; use of quotes; draw conclusions based on discussion
Vocabulary: figurative language; high-frequency words; simile; metaphor; academic and content-specific vocabulary; context clues; synonyms and antonyms; affixes and roots
Writing workshops: narrative (realistic fiction); informative text; opinion
Ideas & development: organization; narrow topic; develop plot; introduce characters; dialogue; conclusion text features; determine point of view; gather information from digital sources; paraphrase information; group related information; text structure; logically order reasons supported by facts and details; drafting; revision; editing; presentation
Word choice: conjunctions; verbs; transition words; linking words
Conventions: sentence fluency; peer feedback; punctuation; language registers; multimedia presentation (create book trailer); verb tense; digital tools
Multiplication of a fraction by a fraction (both factors ,1, including mixed numbers):
Multiplication of a whole number and a fraction (partitive, fraction products)
Multiplication as resizing
Area: rectangles with fractional side lengths
Division of a unit fraction by a nonzero whole number or a whole number by a unit fraction
Fractions as division of numerator by denominator
Measurement data: line plots (halves, fourths, eighths of a unit)
Properties of light; reflection and refraction
Observable patterns in shadows
Movement of the sun, the moon, or other celestial bodies
Observe and describe the night sky
Impact of technology on society
Movement of Earth
Properties of rocks, minerals, and soil
Erosion and deposition
Volcanoes and earthquakes
The Revolutionary War
Use primary sources
The First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress
Key ideas of the Declaration of Independence
The United States under the Articles of Confederation
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The Constitutional Convention
Key concepts in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Structure of the federal government
Influences of Federalists and Antifederalists
Distinction between a republic and a democracy
Responsibilities and rights of citizens
CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL
INTELLECTUAL RISK TAKING
Combine or add to thoughts, ideas, processes, or products. Adapt and make adjustments to meet challenges when seeking solutions.
Demonstrate willingness to accept uncertainty by sharing ideas, asking questions, or attempting novel tasks.
Challenge self to advance skill level.
Use feedback—both positive and negative—as an opportunity to learn and improve.
ELAboRATIoN
Parent Guide
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Grade 5 | Part 3
6
Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies
Grade 5, Part 4
Concepts & topics to come
Grade 5, Part 4
Concepts & topics to come
Grade 5, Part 4
Concepts & topics to come
Grade 5, Part 4
Concepts & topics to come
Grade 5, Part 4
Concepts & topics to come
CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL
EFFoRT, MoTIvATIoN, AND PERSISTENCE
Justify a choice or solution based on criteria using evidence and reason.
Question facts and claims.
Determine the credibility of information and claims.
Determine how to use conflicting information.
Identify the components of goal-setting.
Develop and demonstrate a sequenced program of action to achieve a goal or solve a problem.
EvALUATIoN
Parent Guide
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Grade 5 | Part 4
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